Poker Terminology Comes To The WTF!

The excitement is so overwhelming for some players that they've chosen to "stand" on their money totals heading into the Web.com Tour Finals (WTF)...final event at TPC Sawgrass.

I don't recall seeing the phrase "will stand" on my pre-playoffs PGA Tour jargon sheet, perhaps because no one anticipated so many players taking a stand against playing all of the Q-School replacement events. (Trying to come up with the proper jargon without ties to Commissioner Brigham Young's dislike for gambling, must have had the Oxford and leather folio crow in Ponte Vedra Beach working past 5:30. They weren't successful.)

From the tour's first look notes:

Trevor Immelman and Andrew Svoboda, winners of the first two Finals events, head the list of 128 men with varying goals in the season finale. Seung-Yul Noh, who moved to No.1 on the moneyt list after winning the Nationwide Children’s Championship, will stand on his $210,125 after rewarding himself with a trip home to his native South Korea. … Patrick Cantlay also will stand on his total, his $108,000 from finishing runner-up at the Hotel Fitness Championship still good for No. 7 on the list. … Every other player in the top 100 in Finals earnings will tee it up at Dye’s Valley.

Well they've got that going for them.

Garry Smits takes the view that the system is working and talks to some players who are mostly supportive of the concept, including Russell Knox who thinks the WTF is a huge improvement over Q-School, a six-day event he calls "miserable" and "terrible."

"The whole experience was miserable,” said the Jacksonville University graduate who is among 127 players who will start in the Web.com Tour Championship on Thursday. “After four rounds, you were exhausted. You just wanted to leave. And you never play six rounds in a professional event. Why would you play six to get to the PGA Tour? It was a terrible system.”

The new card game now spreads four 72-hole tournaments over five weeks, in different parts of the country, on different courses. The fields combined the top-75 on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list with the players No. 126 and below on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points list to offer four chances -- not just one -- to get to the PGA Tour.

Key word...offers. Playing all four is an option. I can just hear the Q-School vets wishing they could opt out of a round or two.

In previous seasons, the top-25 in earnings after the Web.com Tour Championship qualified for the PGA Tour. Another 25 were awarded at the National Qualifier (or Q-School, since it used to involve classes in golf rules, finance and media relations).

All 50 cards will officially be awarded after the final round on Sunday. At least players won’t be waiting until almost Christmas.

Actually, they'll have a week off and will be expected to be back grinding in a week. Can't wait to hear the moaning about that!